Flower Labs, a Cambridge University spinout, has launched a British frontier AI model that it says can match the performance of rivals from OpenAI and Anthropic.
The London and Hamburg-based start-up said its Endeavor general-purpose model, which draws on open-source software as well as its own proprietary intellectual property, completed tasks at similar levels to OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol and Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5, two of the US companies’ main models.
Users of Endeavor can also deploy it on their local IT systems, which the company says gives them reliable access, control and improved security. The leading US providers with “closed-source” models require users to access them via software interfaces, access to which can be withdrawn.
“Europe should not have to rent its intelligence indefinitely from a handful of US companies,” said Professor Nicholas Lane, co-founder and chief scientist of Flower Labs and professor of machine-learning systems at the University of Cambridge.
“If AI is going to become fundamental infrastructure for companies and governments, then those organisations need a credible way to control the intelligence their systems depend on. Endeavor gives them that option without asking them to step back from the frontier.”
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